• Summary:
Sir George Grey, once the idol of South African historians, has become the object of
reproach in recent revisionist studies. The change in attitude has mostly to do with a
historiographical shift, from a focus that was once centred predominantly on the White
ruling elite to one that concentrates more on the effects of colonialism on the
indigenous populations of southern Africa. Early historians like John Rutherford praised
Grey for the apparent progress of his administration. Revisionist historians like Jeff
Peires, on the other hand, revile the Governor for his attitude towards the African
peoples which they believe was somehow instrumental in causing such things as the Cattle Killing episode within British Kaffraria and in the trans-Keian territory.